An hours-long standoff Saturday, March 7, led to criminal citations against a man who climbed a 100-foot spruce tree in Eugene’s Friendly neighborhood and threatened to pull a handgun, the Eugene Police Department said in a statement.
The incident began at about 2:15 p.m., when Eugene police officers responded to reports of an “armed” and “suicidal” man in a tree along the 2400 block of Jackson Street. He was bleeding from a “non-life-threatening, self-inflicted knife wound,” police said. Officers saw the knife and attempted to calm the man.
After the man, 36, said he had a handgun on him and threatened to pull it, police sent an emergency message to nearby residents asking them to shelter in place, and the department’s SWAT and Crisis Negotiation Team were activated. Team members tried negotiating with the suspect to come down, but after six hours, including with the help of the suspect’s family members, those attempts were unsuccessful…